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Verizon Looking To Acquire Netflix For $4.6 Billion?

As reported by Bloomberg, Verizon might be starting the process of purchasing another “big red” giant in the United States. Netflix. According to an investment banker with ties to Verizon, they are beginning to look at ways of snatching up profits and cutting costs from video streaming services such as Netflix and move beyond just their Fios service.

As stated in their report, if the deal takes place it is said to possibly take place in April of next year. Will Netflix be better than ever if owned by Verizon? Could this mean Verizon devices will all come pre-loaded with the app? And what does this mean for non-Verizon phones? There is always a chance that this move would keep the mobile product unchanged too.

HE LL NO, I dont want big dead controlling Netflix, VZ sucks already and to give them control over the movies no way!

Anonymous

Great, no release dates for movies and tiered scene plans. There must be limits on on this stuff.

http://www.carpetcleanersacramento.com carpet cleaners Sacramento

I think this will not be a good move considering that Netflix has long been performing poorly.

http://twitter.com/flow42 Douglas Lee

Watch as the Verizon-controlled Netflix treats the new season of Arrested Development like the Galaxy Nexus. They’ll deny its existence until the release date. Viewers will be mortified when they discover that GOB and Tobias have been replaced by brand-new, loathsome stereotype sitcom characters, created by Verizon itself. Meanwhile, Verizon will endlessly pimp its Netflix-exclusive new season of Two and a Half Men.

Anonymous

Netflix comes preloaded on the Droid RAZR.

Granted

Wow, anyone who doesn’t think this is absolutely horrible news is completely retarded and a damn idiot. I really hope this doesn’t happen.

Netflix is absolutely perfect with how it currently is and it would only go downhill if bought by Verizon. Verizon has time and time again shown that simply care about money only, without having the least bit of integrity and never caring about customer satisfaction.

Just look at the insane account of features and policies that they have taken away in the past few years that only helped maximize their profits while getting rid of things customers highly valued. If the acquisition of Netflix takes place they will immediately raise the price through the roof, completely get rid of any perks we now enjoy, probably get rid of the certain number of devices you can activate your account to, it will just go on and on and on! Nothing they do ever benefits their customers recently with everything they’ve taken away or discontinued, and the grandfathered unlimited data plan is the last perk we have left. But I know they will get rid of it as well.

Haha! I almost forgot you speculated that they would leave the service untouched! Always playing the devils whore, I mean advocate. A simpleton would speculate that they wouldn’t molest the current service. They will do everything they can to ruin Netflix if they buy it. Whatever will maximize profits while enraging customers is their M.O..

Anonymous

I’ll cancel my service if that happens.

Havoc70

Same here, Sc rew VZ

Adam

I don’t think this will be good for Netflix in any way, which
is exactly why I am behind this deal %100. After their price increase I
switched to the Blockbuster
Movie Pass
from DISH Network. They cannot possibly beat $10 per month for streaming, 20
additional TV channels, as well as DVR, Blu-ray and video game rentals. As a
DISH employee I think their service has so much more to offer. Verizon will put
the finial nails in the Netflix coffin.

Dominick DeVito

New movie in theaters April 2012.
Out on DVD: August
Out on pre-Verizon Netflix: November

Out on post-Verizon Netflix: November 2013

Anonymous

Please no.
Verizon will just put a meter on everything and add all sorts of arbitrary restrictions.

Anonymous

I think this would be a good thing. If Verizon came to the movie producers and asked for rights to stream movies I am sure they would allow it. Verizon is a much larger company and has more bargaining power.

http://twitter.com/Justinwrites Justin True Anderson

More likely it will just mean that they will have their way with Netflix by purchasing them that the government put a stop too early this year with the net neutrality bill.

Anonymous

please be just a rumor…big red will surely find a way to ruin netflix if this is true t(-_-t)

http://thisisjohncoffey.com GRAND MASTER SEN$Ei {{-_-}}™

ALL BAD. {{o_0}}

Anonymous

NOOO!! please no verizon you ruined enough great things already

Kindroid

For 4.6 billion….Verizon could bring FIOS level broadband to all its service area….now that’s something I could get excited about….

http://twitter.com/shehippie shehippie

*sigh*

Asdfa2

If they acquire netflix, monthly subscription would be sky rocket. Furthermore, there would be no unlimited device connections

http://youtu.be/GvPlAyTG4ik?hd=1 iPhoneDoesnt

Cool! Prices can be expected to go up! Verizon is the new Apple I think

Star

There goes unlimited streaming on Netflix, I bet…

Anonymous

Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if this applies more to FIOS then to Wireless. If you think about it, earlier this year Blockbuster was acquired by Dish and adapted in as a streaming service through the Satellite service. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Verizon do the same just with Netflix.

Anonymous

This is Verizon we are talking about, they’ll force it on the consumer like all their bloatware and charge 5 x the competion and say we are getting a great price. Then they’ll lock it so we cant use competing services, just like they are doing with google wallet.

Anonymous

Wonderful…. Netflix sucks and has no movies as it is now. I had to cancel the service after the first month and also because they were raising the price.

The streaming service was nice but there was nothing to watch that wasn’t 5 years old.

As bad as Netflix is, Verizon would only make it even worse. And if there was a chance they made it better the price would be too high to afford.

Probably and extra $30 per month.

Verizon has a hard enough time releasing and managing their phones and their network. Keep your eye on the ball Verizon.

FortitudineVincimus

Am I the only one here who does not use NF, and doesn’t care about them?

Cam

Nope, same boat here. I abandoned them last year and didn’t look back. Their streaming titles were crap and generally old. Hulu has more recent shows, Redbox for DVDs, no need for Netflix any more.

This isn’t a VZW deal, it’s Verizon Communications, Inc. (the parent, 55% stakeholder in Cellco Partnership Inc. – what we know as Verizon Wireless – along with Vodafone) looking at the acquisition. Verizon needs content for its on demand offerings to stay competitive, particularly after Dish picked up a huge library when they bought Blockbuster out of bankruptcy. This would be all about content and studio deals which would be used to enhance the FiOS offering. Netflix the streaming service would likely survive as a going concern without many changes, but the disc by mail business probably would not be long for this world.

While DL readers are probably most focused on what would be offered with VZW phones, antitrust concerns would likely prevent a VZW exclusive and could go so far as to prevent VZW from including the software on new handsets. All speculation at this point – if this is real, we’re looking at at least 12-18 months before we’d see any kind of integration due to the legal concerns, even if the deal gets approved by shareholders on both sides and priced as of an earlier date.

Haproot

Looks like we’ll see commercials in Netflix sooner than I thought.

Anonymous

Gods. No.

http://twitter.com/Thing342 Wes Jordan

Yo dawg, we heard you like scam artists, so we made a scam artist buy out a scam artist, so you can be overcharged while you’re overcharged.

Steve Martin

Verizon has a habit of turning a great idea into last months garbage by either delaying it or filling it with bloatware or overpriced features. So if Verizon sucessfully buys Netflix I will cancal my membership and go back to blockbuster. Or just use redbox and I hope others will do the same

TC Infantino

Actually I would love that…poetic justice, Netflix drove Blockbuster almost completely out of business, then after Netflix pisses off a large group of its customers and stockholders Blockbuster starts scooping up all the customers who left Netflix. I need to see if Blockbuster has any type of online streaming movies.

Gadgetskopf

They do, but disappointingly, it appears like it only streams to a PC. Their interface with TiVo works as a rental, so even though I had tried out their $9.95 dvd/streaming “see, we’re doing what Netflix used to do” plan, they still wanted me to pony up $3/movie if I want to watch it on my TiVo.

Anonymous

Now this is scary! Once they get control of this, prices will increase and we will find all kinds of limitations. What worries me most, is my ability to use netflix on my RAZR and throughout the house. Another example of corporate america at its best. Consumers Do Not Need TakeOvers, we need competition.

rcpa

This isn’t Verizon Wireless, its Verizon Communications, which is the FIOS / landline part of the company. Don’t fear for your phone, fear for your internet. This is the result of traditional TV starting to lose out to online services like NetFlix, Hulu, and all the others that are sprouting up. Just like more and more people are abandoning their landlines for cell phones, people are starting to abandon cable TV for online services. Where Verizon Communications now charges you for both TV and Internet, the TV part of it is starting to dry up. This is a grab for the content moving forward.

I’ve already gone cell phone only and I’m already contemplating dropping the TV portion of my FIOS plan. Every TV show I watch is available through Hulu Plus on my Roku box or can be streamed from cbs.com on the PC I have connected to my TV. I can also purchase complete TV series from Amazon to play on my Roku for about $40 a season. Sounds expensive if I’m also paying for cable, but if I drop $60+ a month from my FIOS bill by dropping TV, then I can can afford to buy a few shows a year off Amazon when I can’t find them on Hulu Plus.

babadush

I haven’t had traditional tv for almost 2 years. Best decision I’ve made.

Bryan Williams

What this guy/gal said.

james

Torrents are the way to go

Emilio Figueroa

Those are good, but if you want to keep your favorite shows in business, you should definitely buy the season, or at lease an episode or two. Thievery is never the only nor right way to go.

Anonymous

Maybe Verizon is buying Netflix so they can kill it, to make their own streaming service seem better?

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